Grocery guru offers savings tips

Phil Lempert doesn't mince words when he talks about the rising cost of food. Consumers think it is going to come down. "The reality is that it is not," says Lempert, who as an expert analyst on consumer behavior among other things, is known as the Supermarket Guru.

Lempert says that consumers must understand that the higher cost of food is the way it is going to be, and everyone must take steps to deal with it.

There are some elementary things that we can do to keep the grocery bill down, and here are some that Lempert suggests:

Have a shopping list and use it.

Make smart use of coupons.

Shop the entire supermarket. And shop around within the supermarket. As an example, Lempert says that if you look for cheese in three areas of the supermarket - the deli, the dairy and the cheese table - you are likely to find three different prices. He says the dairy case is going to be the least expensive.

You can save a fortune when you go to the frozen food case, he says. "Frozen food will stay at a consistent price, Lempert says, and points out that this food is packed at the time of best taste. "In winter, the price of fresh will overwhelm the price of frozen."

We are going to see more people eating at home. Lempert says that a nice, reasonably priced restaurant will soon cost a couple about $60 for dinner. The same dinner can be prepared at home for $10-$20.

We have to eat smarter. Consumers can be less wasteful. "How many times do we see consumers make way too much and throw it out?

He said he was in New York City recently and he saw a family of four eating at a fast-food restaurant, where each got an order of chicken nuggets. The nuggets were $4 for a serving of 10. He watched the family as they departed, and most left several nuggets. Since they appeared to be tourists, there was no place they could take leftovers to be eaten later. The family also didn't think about how many they needed before placing an order.

Lempert says a bag of more than 20 Banquet frozen chicken nuggets in the supermarket will cost $4, and can be prepared at home.

He advocates going to a frozen food case for help in assembling a meal, such as buying an already-prepared turkey.

And using his consumer-oriented crystal ball, Lempert, who appears regularly on NBC's "Today" show, where he is food trends editor, says he sees a time when we will have two or three or four microwave ovens in one kitchen. "The microwave is finally going to hit its stride," he says, as people combine convenience and value at mealtime. "Buy a microwave for $50 or $60 and it will pay for itself in a month." And the big bonus factor in these tough economic times is that it will get families back to eating together."